


The Summer Solstice

by orphan_account



Category: Lewis (TV)
Genre: Aww factor, Comedy, Fluff, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-08-05
Updated: 2011-08-05
Packaged: 2017-10-22 06:03:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/234669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Jean Innocent has a visit from her sister, the results are surprising and somewhat Shakespearean.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Summer Solstice

**Author's Note:**

> This was written in reply to a prompt in the Lewis Challenge by LadyAspirin.

_Jean Innocent_ – I was less than thrilled when my sister announced that for her retirement and 60th birthday combined present, she was bringing her extended family over for a visit. I have a certain standing to uphold in Oxford and Agnes was going to do nothing, but absolutely nothing to improve my reputation as a pillar of the community.

I love her, of course I do, she is my elder sister and although we don’t see much of each other, blood is thicker than water but she is, different, very different. I was always science and fact, she is arts and intuition. I hold a very high position in the Police Force and she is a leading light in the French experimental theatre, or was.

I just hoped I could keep her away from my colleagues and then I felt miserable and mean for thinking that.

 _Lewis_ – we had been poring over computer records to do with the murder of a very dodgy accountant. We’d been at it all morning and were ready for a break. I could see James doing that, half-removing his cigarette pack from his pockets that he always does several times before announcing that he is going outside for a smoke. So we were both secretly delighted to have a diversion, especially a really bizarre diversion like Agnes.

 _Hathaway_ – I was just thinking of going outside when I heard a very melodic, low-pitched, female voice trilling  
“Oh Bum-Face, Where are you, Bum-Face?”  
Obviously we couldn’t ignore this so Robbie and I nearly got stuck in the doorway trying to get out of the office at the same moment. What met our eyes was a picture!

 _Laura Hobson_ – I had walked behind this vision all the way to Jean Innocent’s office. She was tall, large but not fat, what you might call generously-built and swathed in every colour you could imagine with her patchwork floor-length skirt, tie-dye top and denim jacket, hair up in a comb but with a multicoloured scarf also decorating her top-knot. I was fascinated, especially when she called Queen Bitch Bum-Face!

 _Jean Innocent_ – my worst fears were realised with that phrase. How could she? How dare she? But when I saw here there, grinning at me and holding her arms out, how could I be cross? She still had the look of a naughty puppy that used to get away with everything with Dad. And when she hugged me tight to her generous bosom, I remembered how she used to look out for me when we were kids and I wasn’t cross, I was truly happy to see her again.

 _Lewis_ – watching Ma’am get hugged by the hippy woman was a bit of a treat. Then Mrs 60s put her down and very seriously stood back and gave her a salute  
“Expect I have to call you something important like “Mon commandant”  
“No, Agnes, you don’t. Let me introduce you to some of my team.” Jean replied and took her arm. “This is Robbie Lewis, James Hathaway and behind you is Laura Hobson.”

 _Hathaway_ – the tall woman shook hands with us in turn, looking into our faces very carefully. She had a disconcerting gaze. It felt as if she were inspecting your soul. Then she smiled broadly and nodded to herself.

“Oh yes, this is going to be immense fun. I am going to ENJOY this. What a birthday present.” Then she hopped up with one buttock on the edge of my desk and lit a very pungent cigarette. I don’t know how she knew I was a smoker but she held out the packet to me without even looking. She smoked in an exaggerated way, like I hadn’t seen except in old movies, balancing the cigarette delicately in the air and blowing out smoke very hard and breathily.

 _Laura Hobson_ – I got the impression that Jean’s sister Agnes wasn’t used to being refused anything she wanted but not in a demanding way. She did everything to make sure everyone had a great time – why should they refuse her? She had already occupied James’ office completely and he didn’t look as if he minded one bit. She ticked off on her fingers as she gave us her “invitation” which was more like a royal command. She’d rented Harford Lodge for a fortnight and they really wanted to throw a part but in the meantime she wanted to be sure that all of us would come over as often as possible and just “be”. She beamed at us. That would be fun, wouldn’t it? I got the impression that life really was fun for her, all the time.

 _Jean Innocent_ – I could see after five minutes that Agnes had them all eating out of her hand. She’d always been able to do that and Drama College had only developed the talent she already had. Was I complaining? No, I wasn’t. If she hadn’t had the charm, we’d all have got more beatings from Dad. If Agnes hadn’t been able to play the clown and make him laugh, get between him and us ….. I don’t know how things would have gone for us. Lewis was staring at her in undisguised admiration and young Hathaway seemed to have found a fellow-artistic soul to relate to. I couldn’t see Laura’s face but could tell she was grinning at the thought of the kind of parties my mad sister might throw. I was just pleased I had warned them all, back when we had the Quiz murders on our plate, that my family were mad.

 _Lewis_ – Agnes wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, a bit too theatrical and gaudy for my tastes but she was, I sensed, a genuinely nice person under all the mannerisms and it would be interesting to get a closer look at this Gallic side of Jean Innocent’s family. I don’t speak French and I wasn’t sure who else in the team did but we agreed to go over on Friday evening for an informal, family get-together. Laura was certainly up for it and I raised an eyebrow at James.

 _Hathaway_ – I wasn’t sure. I don’t like parties. I especially don’t like other people’s family parties, so I hesitated. Agnes turned to me from her perch on the edge of my desk and did something so over-familiar I felt myself turning crimson. She grasped my chin in her hand, turned my face to hers and then leaned up to whisper in my ear “Of course you are coming to the ball, Cinders. If you don’t, your new Fairy Godmother can’t work her magic. And you do want her to work her magic, don’t you?” Then she planted a very gentle kiss on my earlobe and released me, radiating a 1000kw smile that could have lit up Oxford. Normally that would have put me off her completely but this very odd woman seemed to get away with abnormal behaviour. Perhaps she was magic, in a strange and foreign way.

 _Laura_ – I don’t know what Agnes whispered in James’ ear but it seemed to work because he agreed to go to the “gathering” as it was described. So on the Friday after work we all piled into a taxi and went to the Lodge which was a misnomer because it was more like a junior stately home which the National Trust let out at some exorbitant rate.

************************************************

 _Jean Innocent_ -There seemed to be hundreds of them, certainly enough to have hired a coach to bring them all over from France and there were all ages from small babies up to elderly ladies in their floral, nylon overalls. Some of the younger men had brought their music and were setting up a makeshift stage and humping amps around. James immediately went over to compare guitars and their language barrier had completely disappeared.

Trying to sort out who was who proved to be so complicated that I gave up on it, especially as at least two brothers had married two sisters and there was a lady who was referred to as Auntie by everyone present. Hathaway had explained to me that in Catholic countries everyone who was related in any way would be referred to as a cousin, so it wasn’t any use taking that word as meaning Uncle’s son or daughter because it could be a damn sight more tenuous than that. I just assumed they were in some way all the same family.

 _Laura Hobson_ – I’d never seen Robbie so relaxed. He’d been adopted by the younger kids and was finding it difficult to walk with several under-tens hanging onto his arms and legs. One of the younger boys had gone off and found one of his granny’s long black overcoats which he had put on along with a long scarf he’d draped around his neck, hanging down his chest.

The band was tuning up and Agnes grabbed a microphone. The first riffs of Born to be Wild throbbed out of the amps and she waved to James to join in and then started to sing, strutting her stuff and giving the lie to the fact that this was her 60th birthday. She was vamping it, big time and somehow on her it looked fine. So much less the policeman now, James was jamming with the band, cigarette clamped between his teeth, more like a rock star. Agnes leaned back sensuously against his right shoulder, shimmying down his side and running a hand down his thigh, smiling to herself and then slapped his back. Entering into the spirit of it, even the normally painfully-private James didn’t seem to mind this. The family whistled and stamped. He removed his guitar and moved aside to accept the proffered beer.

 _Robbie_ – I was propelled by four of the little girls down the length of the courtyard towards the little boy in the long black coat. I’d been co-opted to play the groom in an impromptu wedding and seemed to be surrounded by small children, facing a midget priest, which I realised, was what the long coat was for. Hathaway must have felt sorry for the little girl with the thick spectacles who had been left out so he very gallantly offered his arm and propelled her up the makeshift aisle as, first the children, then the band, improvised the Wedding March. Was it just an accident or had it been arranged that, once at the “altar”, the young guests disappeared, leaving us alone like a bride and groom? There was an awkward silence between us and then I said  
“We’re going to have to talk, Sergeant”, to which he replied, with one of his knowing, smug smiles.  
“I thought you’d never ask, Sir.”

**************************************************

 _James_ – there really was something different, possibly magical in the air that night. Anything could happen. I had enjoyed playing with the band but I wanted a smoke and some time out so I wandered off into the garden, finding a low wall to sit on. I wasn’t surprised when Robbie sat down next to me, he often turns up where I am, but that hadn’t ever struck me as odd.  
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed, James”, he said. I decided not to deny it any more.  
“No, Sir. I don’t expect you haven’t. You are a detective, after all.”  
“Don’t be clever with me Hathaway.” He paused, not knowing where to go with it.  
“I think I’m in love with you, Sir.” It was out before I knew I was going to say it.  
“Yes, I know,” he sighed, rubbing his face with his hands. “Question is, what are we going to do about it?”  
I watched the end of my cigarette trembling as my hands shook.  
“That depends if you want to do anything about it, Sir. I just thought you ought to know.”  
“Well I don’t want you mooning around after me and staying up all night trying to please me. You know how it is James”  
“How it is, Robbie? I’m Bi, you’re straight and I’m in love with you. Does that sum up how it is, Sir?”  
“And lonely,” he added quietly “very bloody lonely, both of us.” He’d taken my hand, unobtrusively, between us as we both sat on the wall. “Perhaps we’ll have to look at that Bi / Straight business, eh?” He lifted my hand and kissed the back of my fingers. “I’ve never done anything like that, James, but, I have feelings for you too. There, I’ve said it.”  
“We’ll learn together then, Robbie,” I whispered “because as far as that goes, I’m a total virgin too. Had the feelings, not the physicals”. He laughed quietly.  
“Should we go back to your place this evening then?” he asked. I nodded and took a deep breath because things had taken an enormous leap forward, more than I could have hoped for in a single evening.

 _Jean Innocent_ – I was sitting in a quiet corner of the garden, enjoying looking up at the full moon with my sister. Agnes looked over her shoulder and said quietly  
“Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania” and waggled her fingers into the darkness.  
“What are you on about, Agnes?” I asked her and she turned back to me with a big smile.  
“What’s the date, Jean? Full moon and midsummer’s night – that line is from the Dream – one of my best roles, Titania.” I must have looked bemused because she spelled it out for me. “the Shakespeare play about everyone falling in love with the wrong person but it all coming out right in the end - Midsummer Night’s Dream.”  
I looked where she was pointing and just made out Lewis and Hathaway sitting together on a wall and from my viewpoint they could have been kissing. I pointed and she laughed quietly, raising her glass to me.  
“Told you I can do magic, sister. I’m a weird looking Fairy Godmother but I can do the magic when I want to. Especially on Midsummer Night with a full moon.”


End file.
